Week 3 Assignment – Personal Logo Design Part 1

• Due Saturday by 11:59pm
• Points 120
• Submitting a file upload
• Available Nov 25 at 12am – Dec 21 at 11:59pm 27 days

Due by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. (MT) end of Week 3 (120 pts)

Learning Objectives Covered:

1. Identify and apply three characteristics to produce a logo that encapsulates a unique identity

Background

As a professional designer, others will often look to and hire you to create a logo and overall visual identity for them. Though excelling at this work is important because it allows you to have a sustainable career, it is important to occasionally turn your professional design eye on yourself, designing (or redesigning) your own personal logo and ensuring your own digital identity is as cohesive and effective as possible. When considering the design of your own logo it is important to first identify your own unique design story and the elements that set you apart from all the other designers in the world. This goes beyond just your favorite color or font to uncover the larger reasons you were drawn to design and your unique personalities.

The following three questions can help you discover what makes you unique and inspire you as you design your own personal logo:

• Why am I a designer?
• Why do I believe design is important?
• What is the thing that makes me unique and someone should hire me before the guy down the street?

Though the answers to these questions don’t seem to have an immediate visual translation to how you will design, with some critical thinking they will enable you to build a strong foundation that is uniquely yours. For example, if you are a designer because you believe that beautiful, ornamental design raises everyone’s standards of living then perhaps your personal logo will feature a flourish or scrolling element. If you believe design is important because it enables complex ideas and topics to be clearly represented to a wider audience, your personal logo might use a clean sans serif typeface such as Avenir or Myriad. If the thing that makes you unique is your love of illustration, your personal logo might contain a simple line drawing you’ve generated or some hand lettered type.

Prompt

Project Overview
For the final two weeks of this class, you will be designing a logo for yourself. This week you will begin the preliminary design process and idea generation. In week four, you will finalize the logo design and show it in use within a corporate identity structure.

Week 3 Project
This week you will begin the preliminary design process and idea generation for your own logo. This should be very familiar as it is very similar to the steps you did for your Week 1 and 2 redesign project. This one goes into more depth because it is a new company, yours, that you are designing for.

Assignment Instructions:

1. First, spend time reflecting on the three questions outlined in the background above and write down your answers. Though it is tempting to immediately jump onto the computer and begin trying things, resist the urge and spend at least ten to twenty minutes reflecting on your own “why” behind your choice to be a designer.
2. When you feel ready, complete fifteen preliminary black and white sketches of possible logo concepts. Considering possible font choices, imagery ideas, and even what name you would use.
3. Once you have completed your fifteen sketches, choose three directions you feel are most promising and create a further refined black and white version of each of these logos on the computer.

Submission Instructions:

1. When you have completed all parts of the assignment, save your work as a multi-page PDF that includes the following:
   1. The answers to the three questions (150 word minimum)
   2. Minimum of 15 sketches
   3. The three refined best logo directions from your sketches in black and white
2. Name your file DES242_Assignment3_FirstLast.pdf and submit for grading